Writer. Reader. Part-time hermit. Lol at my own one-liners. A lot. Blogging about whistling in the dark, writing for the void, living, loving, traveling the mists, and finding joy.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Why I Joined A Cartel – A Conversation with my Muse

Photo Credit: HotBlack

SRK: You know what the
toughest most frustrating part of writing is?

MUSE: Is it the years
you spent drafting, writing and rewriting that six book series that spans
worlds? Remember how every time you thought it was finished I’d come up with an
even better idea that affected every single book in the series, and you’d have
to chop and change every book over and over again? That was so much fun. I know
that wasn’t the frustrating part.

SRK: Yeah, that was a
blast. I wasn’t thinking of that part.

MUSE: If you roll your
eyes at me again I’ll come up with a story thread that will require you to pull
and edit the published books.

SRK: That was just a
tick.

MUSE: Was it the two
years you spent trying to get that series published in the CBA? Because when I
want steamy scenes in novels, you will do what I want, or I’ll put them in your
head when you’re kissing your husband—and I know he knows when you’re thinking
about racy scenes with Kahtar.

SRK: Hey, that could
have worked out with the CBA! Those books tackle good and evil, light and
darkness, and Kahtar was even at the crucifixion! You have clans of people who
follow the exact same ten laws and some are utopian and some are dystopian!
That series is a perfect parable for religion in the real world!

SRK: Yeah. Well…whatever.
It was only two years wasted. Not even quite two.

MUSE: You’re going to
say the most frustrating part of writing is editing, aren’t you? Editing is so
boring. You can’t blame editing on your muse. Plus I always try to give you
really good story ideas for other books while you and your editor are working,
so you don’t get bored.

SRK: Yeah, it’s not
editing, but thanks a lot for that. It’s only completely distracting when you
do that, I want you to know. Editing requires focus.

MUSE: Whatever. Like
being a muse doesn’t. I give up, and you’re starting to bore me with this.
What’s the most frustrating part of writing?

SRK: The most
frustrating part of writing is after all the work that goes into a book, that
so few readers leave a book review. Without book reviews you sell less books.
When you sell less books, it’s kinda hard to get the next book published.

MUSE: Writing book
reviews is boring. Readers don’t like homework. They bought your book; they
read it, why do you have to be so needy?

SRK: I understand that,
but they’d like to have the next book in the series and a review makes that
happen. Besides, a review doesn’t need to be a book report. One or two lines
are plenty. But even getting a reader to do that is ridiculous. Once a friend
of a friend asked me to bring them a candy bar from another country and I said
I’d bring it if they’d put up a review of my book up on Amazon. (I knew they’d
read it! They were pestering me via the friend of a friend about when the next
book was coming out.)

MUSE: Did they do it?

SRK: Yeah, and that was
the most reliable approach I found to getting reviews. But you can’t bribe people. It’s
not ethical. Besides when you give your friend a candy bar to give to their
other friend, your friend eats it.

MUSE: Are you telling
me we’re not writing the next book in the series together? Is that what this is
all about?

SRK: No. I’m telling
you why I joined a cartel. It’s a place called Story Cartel, and they have
readers who like to write reviews! I made a deal with Story Cartel that they can
share my newest book with their readers—and in exchange for that, every one of
those readers will write a review of BLANK: A Shieldmaiden’s Voice.

SRK: Actually anybody
can join Story Cartel. Readers can download brand new books and books that haven’t
even been published yet for free, and
all they have to do is promise to read it and write a review within a month.

MUSE: What if they don’t
do it? What if they just take the free book and never write a review? What
happens then?

HEARTLESS A Shieldmaiden's Voice

FOREVER The Constantines' Secret

A Winter's Romance

You'll Never View Romance the Same!

In Creeps the Night

Horror Anthology

Through the Portal

Anthology of Transportation and Transformation

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